The size of the consumer mobile media services market — consumed via the handset — will increase to $380 billion by 2018 from above $236 billion in 2013, said Strategy Analytics.
The forecast does not include tablet spend.
Consumer mobile media services include handset browsing, mobile applications, mobile games, mobile music, mobile video, mobile TV, ringtones, wallpapers and alerts.
Mobile operators will remain the main beneficiaries with spending on mobile data accounting for over $254 billion, or 67.3 percent, of total mobile media revenue by 2018.
Strong mobile advertising revenue growth will eclipse consumer spend on premium content, rising at just below 20 percent CAGR over the next five years, according to Strategy Analytics’ forecast, Global Mobile Media Forecast: 2001-2018.
In advanced mobile media regions, like North America and Western Europe, demand for web browsing, games, apps and social media services will continue to drive mobile data adoption, enabled by the growing installed base of media-centric smartphones.
Nitesh Patel, director of the Wireless Media Strategies (WMS) research program, said: “We expect less mature mobile markets, where a large portion of users have basic or feature phones and remain served by 2G networks, to exhibit the strongest growth in mobile media revenue.”
Less mature telecom markets will face challenges in driving mobile media growth through casual data tariffs or service orientated pricing when low priced smartphones are growing rapidly, the report said.
Overall, mobile advertising will become an increasingly important revenue stream, more than doubling to approach $41 billion by 2018, and accounting for nearly 11 percent of mobile media revenue.
David MacQueen, executive director of Apps and Media at Strategy Analytics, said: “Mobile is becoming a core part of the digital advertising mix, accounting for around 14 percent of digital ad revenue in 2013.”
